Typically, complex system simulations are performed using two levels of simulation to reduce computing time and cost. For example, in an aircraft fuel system that includes a large number of T-junctions having varying flow conditions, geometrical configurations and so on, the simulation to study the behavior of the T-junctions can be a very time consuming process. Such simulations are generally performed using two levels of simulation. The first level includes performing the simulations using simple simulation techniques.
For example, the first level simulation can include performing the simulation of the entire aircraft fuel system except for the T-junction configurations using a one-dimensional (1D) simulation. For the T-junction components, 1D simulation results may not be very accurate, so a second level simulation is performed. This second level simulation includes usage of a look-up table to provide results of a typical three-dimensional (3D) T-junction simulation or directly performing of a complete 3D simulation, which may not be cost-effective, as they can be very time consuming and expensive to keep 3D simulation package licenses.
Generally, the second level simulation includes using a local look-up table file to determine a type of T-junction geometry and/or a type of flow condition requested by the 1D simulation during the convergence process. For example, during the convergence of the 1D simulation, a large number of flow conditions may be tried by a 1D solver, for which look-up may happen to obtain the T-junction 3D simulation result. However, if the requested T-junction geometry and/or the flow condition are not available in the local look-up table file then, the 1D simulation may stop or poorly interpolate leading to lack of robustness and accuracy of the computation.
In such a scenario, a localized self-refining surrogate model is used to provide continuous interpolation across tabulated data, and to capitalize on previously performed 3D simulations of T-junctions where the 1D simulation of the T-junctions lacks robustness and accuracy (as shown in FIG. 1). However, using the localized self-refining surrogate model, one cannot take advantage of any previously performed 3D simulations of T-junctions in various aircraft programs by others. This can result in re-computing and redoing the 3D simulations, which may result in a time consuming process.